Fukushima Accident

Prof. Pavel P. Povinec is an international expert in radioactivity phenomena in physics, chemistry and environmental science. He has been in environmental radioactivity research for over fifty years, specifically assessing radioactivity around nuclear power plants, studying impacts of the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents and global fallout in the terrestrial and marine environments, carrying marine radioactivity studies at radioactive waste dumping sites globally, assessing the impact of nuclear weapons testing sites on oceans, developing radionuclide detection technologies, and developing a worldwide radioactivity database and computer models of radionuclide dispersion. In 1993-2005 he served as Head of the Radiometrics Laboratory of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Marine Environment Laboratories, Monaco. He has published over 700 papers in scientific journals, books and proceedings, and edited over 30 scientific books, proceedings and special issues of journals. He has several international awards including the Hevesy Award and Medal for his contribution to nuclear sciences (2017).

Prof. Katsumi Hirose is internationally well-known in environmental radioactivity. He has been working in atmospheric and marine radioactivity research for forty years, specializing in anthropogenic radionuclides, as well as natural decay products. Recently his scientific work has been focusing on assessment of the impact of the Fukushima accident on the total environment. He developed several radiochemical methods for analysis of radionuclides in the environment at ultra-low levels. He contributed significantly to better understanding the behaviour of radionuclides in the atmosphere and ocean, and the use of radionuclides as tracers of environmental processes. He has led several national and international research projects on environmental radioactivity. He also served as the Director of the Geochemical Department of the Meteorological Research Institute in Tsukuba. Presently he is a Professor at Sophia University of Tokyo. He has published over 250 papers in journals, books and proceedings.

Prof. Michio Aoyama has been working in atmospheric and marine radioactivity research for 40 years, developing ultrasensitive methods of caesium-137 analysis in environmental samples using underground gamma-ray spectrometry. He contributed to better understanding of sources and distribution of radionuclides in the environment, specifically of global fallout caesium-137 in the world’s oceans, as well as the impact of the Fukushima accident on Pacific Ocean waters. He developed a global marine radioactivity database and made important contributions to better understanding sources and distribution of radionuclides in the global oceans, including ocean circulation modelling. He has led several national and international research projects on environmental radioactivity. He is a Professor at the University of Tsukuba where he is leading projects oriented on marine radioactivity studies. He has published over 200 papers in scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.